CAIRO, Egypt -- Weather Investments S.p.A. (“Weather”), owned and controlled by the Sawiris family, agreed to acquire the company that holds 100% of the shares of TIM Hellas Telecommunications S.A. (“TIM Hellas”).
TIM Hellas is the third largest mobile operator in Greece with more than 3 million subscribers as of September 30th 2006. Completion of the transaction will be subject to European Commission anti-trust and local regulatory approvals.
The EUR 500 million equity consideration will be financed with debt at Weather provided by Citibank, Banca IMI and Deutsche Bank. Weather intends to maintain the current capital structure at TIM Hellas consisting of net debt of approximately Euro 2.9 Billion as of December 2006. To the extent this is not possible Deutsche Bank and Citibank have provided a financing commitment.
The executive management team of TIM Hellas which was appointed in 2005 will remain in place following the acquisition. Since their appointment, TIM Hellas acquired Q-Telecom, the fourth largest mobile operator from Info-Quest S.A. and has enjoyed very strong operational and financial performance. The company is free cash flow positive.
This acquisition further expands Weather’s European footprint beyond Italy consistent with the strategy of the group. Weather, through it’s subsidiary Wind Telecomunicazioni (“Wind”), also holds a 51% stake in Tellas S.A., an alternative fixed line provider in Greece. Mr. Naguib Sawiris stated, “We expect to create significant value for the group by adding TIM Hellas to our portfolio and by further building on group wide synergies at all levels.” Weather will work closely with the existing management to continue the operational turnaround, finalize the consolidation of Q-Telecom, and integrate the operation into the group.
Orascom Telecom